Now I know that I will not evoke a lot of sympathy, but I consider it quite unfair that certain people enter the championship using multiple IDs. This tactic multiplies their chance of winning several times, depending on how many IDs they have entered. If I were to do this, I could possibly remove some or all competition in the top round! I'd rather not name names in a public forum, but one of my GWG opponents recently admitted that they had played me using another ID. I find that both of the IDs were entered in the 4th GWG championship. I acknowledge that a policy would be difficult to enforce, but I believe that the policy is still needed. I suspect that the other GWG addicts will have something to say about this. What do YOU think?

I had likewise concerns already about 6 months ago, I even sent an email about it to the webmaster. I got reply saying that it would be investigated, I gave several possible solutions for the problem.

I haven't noticed anything, i even think it's the same “players” we're talking about.

This is a problem in a few games here, if it's not taken care of people will keep on making multiple names and who knows where that will end.

This is an issue, but how are you going to stop it, you could ban people from using 2 seperate ID's from the same IP address, but that would penalise people who's partners also play on Littlegolem.

The honour system should prevent people from cheating their way to the top.

Sheesh! It shows how naive I am - I had never thought this kind of thing until I read this thread. Perhaps it would take a combination of not only having the same IP address but also the same email address. That would, at least, force such jerks to create multiple email accounts to pull off their shenanigans. I guess, if no fool-proof solution could be found, we could just let these idiots have their little bit of fun. After all, THEY know that they acted unethically and any “glory” they may gain will be just as artificial as the means they used to gain it. Personally, although I certainly like to win, I prefer to learn, and will continue to play without trying to second-guess if any of my opponents happen to be the same person or not.

I think what's needed is to state that it's not the way we want to play here. Believe it or not, I'm sure there are some people who figure that it's OK. And the policy should also state that yes, although it will be monitored, it's possible to get away with it. So getting away with it is no great accomplishment. So just please don't.

I realized soon after my first posting on this subject that the policy already exists … in the FAQ. It says “How many championships can I play at once? For each game you can only enter once the championship.” It seems clear enough to me!

Now for the chat. I've been commiserating with one of my opponents about this situation and he told me the TwoIDguy explained his other ID this way: “he is playing some moves for his brother-in-law when he is away.” This seems so far from the truth that I feel that I should present the move by move chat we had in a game. BTW, text in parenthesis were modified to preserve some unanimity for TwoIDguy. Send me a note if you'd like to know who TwoIDguy is.

Scot: nice play! it's gonna be hard to come back now. I should learn a lesson.

TwoIDguy: it was all against you….. you have kicked my butt about 10 times now…. it had to turn into my favour sooner or later…

Scot: There's only a few people that I have played THAT much: Lil_Dragon (17), Tore Sandmark (15), Lieven Marchand (12), Ed Collins (10), Judy (9), Randolf King (8) and SunnyD (7) … See Scot's GWG games. Which one are you? You might note that the link shows that I have not completed ANY games with a (TwoIDguy)! … BTW, you are playing VERY well!

TwoIDguy: I have played you with my other name. i actually didnt realise that i hadnt played you as (TwoIDguy). (Next sentence deleted because it identifies the person very clearly)

Scot: It seems unfair that you enter both (TwoIDguy) and (TwoIDguy2) in the championship. Are you from (country for TwoIDguy) or (country for TwoIDguy 2)? … or somewhere else?

TwoIDguy: Well you would be surprised how many actually have 4 or 5 names. And yes i (am from country for ID2).

Scot: I'm probably sour cause I'm losing … I really hate that, but it is unfortunate that you contribute to the GWG championship being unfair and all you can say is that I would be surprised how many people play with multiple IDs!

TwoIDguy: well i suppose i could have left the part in the last text about i hate the fact that some people prefer (to critisize persons from country 2) but i decided against it. Cheating would be using solvers to play the game.

Scot: I've got no problem with (persons from country 2) and 'cheating' is an ugly word. However, since you bring it up, can you agree that 'cheating' is breaking the rules or conventions of the game?

TwoIDguy: to me it is all part of the game…… i never worry about whether people us a cheat or not. I don't really think it is cheating as people need to deal with there own conscience on how they win, a prompt on a word from a dictionary is OK, no one really is an Einstein.

At this point I stopped the conversation because it was so very frustrating with TwoIDguy talking in circles. This is a lot of effort to discredit him, but at least this way GWG players can have a point of comparison when they are told that an oppponent is “playing some moves for my brother-in-law while he is away.”

I must be really dense, because I cannot see any kind of advantage playing under multiple IDs.

No matter what ones name is, they are not going to be any brighter and come up with better words by

using another name. The only thing I can think of is if they are playing with themselves, they could

“throw” the game in favor of one ID thus giving that ID a better rating, but when this same nincompoop

plays against anybody else, they are still only going to be as good as they actually are and their rating

will go back down.

Would it do any good to Blackball those players? And why are you not naming names?

Imagine a top player creating new names, and manages to get into the championship with 5 of his id's … 5/9 chances he wins the tourney. The skill would be the same, but while i might be the better player i could lose 1 of my 5 games versus this hypothetical player…then he would just need to donate the wins to that 1 id.

It won't help a vastly inferior player. But i addition to what was already explained, a competitive player could bide time by playing slowly in games between her/his own IDs, waiting to see how the games against other players develop. Then he/she could have whichever ID was doing best win all the 'internal' games.